Thank you to everyone who participated in the targeted review of Council’s Governance Rules.

In July to August 2022, we heard from 23 participants through Have Your Say about changes proposed to the Governance Rules to enable meetings to be held electronically, and other minor amendments.

Participants told us that:

There was strong support recorded for all proposed changes:

• 74% supported keeping Council and Planning Committee meetings as in-person meetings (by default) and using electronic meetings for lower-level interest matters affecting only a small section of the community
• 74% supported removing the requirement for a person to be present at a Council meeting to have their public question read out and answered at the meeting
• 91% supported recording in the meeting minutes which Councillors voted ‘for’ or ‘against’ each agenda item for every vote (not just when a division is called).

What we’re doing:

The proposed revisions were well supported by the community, despite the relatively small level of feedback received.

As well as this, some editorial enhancements have been made for clarification beyond the publicised revisions proposed.

The additional proposed changes of note are to Sections 83 (4) and 84 (1) under Division 15 (Chapter 2) and clarify that:

• Council and Delegated Committee meetings are to be conducted primarily in-person
• if a Council meeting is to be conducted wholly in-person, it is intended that all Councillors attend the meeting in-person unless circumstances arise that would prevent in-person attendance
• it be at the discretion of the Chief Executive Officer, in consultation with the Mayor, to accept any request from a Councillor to attend an in-person meeting by electronic means, or a request to change the meeting format to be wholly by electronic means.

Find out more about the engagement results

See a list of key revisions proposed

View the revised Governance Rules

---

Next steps

Council will consider community feedback and the revised Governance Rules at its 20 September 2022 meeting.

Council meeting 20 September 2022 at 6.30pm

• Read the agenda
• Ask a question
• Request to be heard
• Watch the meeting